The Complete Guide to the Coinbase Pro Exchange

Contents

• History and Founders
• The Founders
• Coinbase Businesses
• What Is Coinbase Pro, and How Does It Work?
• Creating an Account on Coinbase Pro
• Deposits and Withdrawal Fees
• How To Trade on Coinbase Pro
• Margin Trading
• Trading Fees
• Service Locations
• Coinbase Pro API
• Coinbase Pro Mobile App
• Coinbase Pro Security
• How to Get Your Asset Listed on Coinbase Pro
• Customer Service
• Coinbase Pro Legal & Regulatory Compliance
  • Legal and Other Controversies
• Conclusion

Coinbase Pro is a professional cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for merchants and traders to buy and sell digital assets. The exchange offers a safe and secure environment with insurance banking to its customers, and caters to 64 different markets and ranks 34th globally in terms of volume traded.

Don’t let its ranking deceive you, though. Coinbase Pro is just one part of the large Coinbase digital currency exchange, aimed at professional traders. Let’s get started on the complete guide to trading on the platform.

1. History and Founders

Coinbase Pro dates back to 2012, when Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam and Ben Reeves decided to create a digital wallet to hold cryptocurrencies. Ben Reeves left in the early weeks of the team formation, citing differences in the direction the Coinbase wallet was taking. The same summer, Armstrong and Ehrsam presented their idea to the startup accelerator program, Y Combinator. By Autumn of the same year, Coinbase had launched its services of buying and selling Bitcoin from people via bank transfer.

Coinbase caught the eye of investors and in 2013, secured $30 million in investments by venture capital firms such as Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. And the year after, 2014, was also fruitful for the exchange, which swelled to 1 million users and went on a partnership spree that saw the likes of Dell, Expedia, Overstock and Time Inc. collaborating to accept Bitcoin payments.

Coinbase Pro was launched in 2015 for the United States market, then under the name of Coinbase Exchange. But 2016 saw the exchange rebranded as the Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX). Later on, in a bid to bring a single brand identity to all of the Coinbase services, GDAX was renamed Coinbase Pro.

Even with the immense growth, Coinbase is not without its hiccups. In November 2017, the trading platform was asked by the Internal Revenue Service to provide details of all users who had made more than $20,000 worth of trades in a year. Initially reluctant, the company was forced to reveal private information of almost 14,000 traders, including their names, dates of birth, addresses and complete transaction records spanning from 2013 to 2015.

In 2019, Coinbase had acquired Italy-based blockchain intelligence firm Neutrino in an attempt to boost its security. Many traders raised hue and cry since the founders of Neutrino had links to another organisation that was known to provide online surveillance technology to different governments. Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong released a public statement in Coinbase blog, saying that any member of Neutrino staff with connections to the activity would be let go.

Cryptocurrencies have always been a favourite amongst hackers due to their meteoric rise in value. In the August of 2019, Coinbase was subject to a complex attack where hackers used social engineering and phishing, along with exploiting a bug in Firefox, to disguise their activities. The Coinbase team was able to detect the intrusion and successfully block their access to the network. Not a single cryptocurrency was stolen.

Even with its controversies and issues, Coinbase management has always proven that the interest and protection of its users’ assets and information has been the priority. Coinbase Pro is one of the safest methods for professional traders to buy and sell digital assets.

2. The Founders

Brian Armstrong is a Co-Founder and the current CEO of Coinbase, the umbrella company that incorporates Coinbase Pro. A computer scientist, he had the perfect set of skills to create a digital wallet of Coinbase and then later on, the different trading platforms including Coinbase Pro.

Armstrong’s Professional Experience

• CEO & Founder, Coinbase. June 2012 – Present
• Software Engineer, AirBnB. May 2011 – June 2012. 1 Year, 2 Months.
• CEO & Founder, UniversityTutor.com. August 2003 – May 2012. 8 Years, 10 Months
• Consultant, Enterprise Risk Management, Deloitte & Touche. July 2005 – November 2005. 5 Months.
• Intern Team Lead, IBM. June 2003 - September 2003. 4 Months.

The other Co-Founder of Coinbase, Fred Ehrsam is also a computer scientist, with a bachelor’s degree in the field, as well as economics. The combination of computer science and economics made him the ideal person to create a digital wallet and exchange for cryptocurrencies.

Ehsram’s Professional Experience

• Co-Founder, Paradigm. June 2018 – Present.
• Board of Directors, Coinbase. February 2017 – Present.
• Co-Founder, Coinbase. November 2012 - January 2017. 4 Years, 3 Months.
• Trader, Goldman Sachs. July 2010 – June 2012. 2 Years.
• Researcher, Duke University. May 2008 – July 2008.

3. Coinbase Businesses

Coinbase operates in numerous markets across 32 different countries and has four distinct product lines, each one designed to cater for a specific target market:

• Coinbase: A cryptocurrency exchange with simple and advanced trading options, designed for individuals and other people who do not trade as a primary source of income.
• Coinbase Pro: Formerly Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX), this version of the exchange is aimed towards professional traders who prefer to buy and sell at high volumes.
• Coinbase Prime: For the institutional investors who prefer to make profits by accruing interests apart from trading, Coinbase Prime is the choice. Prime offers one the most diversified liquidity pools that is behind all of Coinbase’s products. All the trades are monitored by surveillance teams that have a diverse background in legal and regulatory framework, hailing from the CFTC and SEC to ensure fairness in the market.
• Coinbase Wallet: The name does little justice to showcase this product’s capability. It is a crypto wallet with multi-token support, such as BTC, LTC, ETH and ERC-20 support, but also is one of the few multi-token wallets that also supports digital ownership of collectables such as cards, art and others through the ERC-721 tokens. The wallet is also a window to a world of decentralised internet with dApps that connect with other decentralised exchanges, communities where people get paid to complete different tasks etc.

4. What Is Coinbase Pro, and How Does It Work?

Coinbase is the most popular exchange in the United States. With its excellent security record, it is the de facto choice among individuals and professional traders. Coinbase Pro is the professional product line where professional traders can buy and sell crypto assets. The exchange currently supports fiat (traditional money such as US Dollars and Pound Sterling) and crypto trading, with 65 distinct pairs.

Trading pairs are basically what one specific asset can be bought or sold against another set one. For example, Coinbase Pro has four different trading pairs for Bitcoin, BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, BTC/GBP and BTC/USDC. For a trader, if he wishes to buy Bitcoin on Coinbase Pro, he or she must first see what supported type of fiat or crypto is in their possession. For example, if a trader has USD, the trader can buy BTC using the BTC/USD pair. Similarly, holding the stable coin USDC would enable the trader to buy BTC using the BTC/USDC pair. In case a trader wants to sell BTC, he or she can use any of the mentioned pairs to convert the Bitcoin into their preferred currency.

With six different trading pairs, ETH has the most, while BTC, LTC and ETH come in second with four each. At first glance, the smaller pairs against each asset and the overall 65 pairs in totality seem to give an impression that the exchange is not bigenough. Yet, considering that this is a professional platform with a $222 USD million in daily trading volume, the numbers are pretty good.

The trading interface has a nice dark outlook to it, in line with the deep bluish black theme of the whole of Coinbase. Users will find the interface uncluttered, with a neat look. The price charts on the right, order placement options on the left andthe order book sandwiched in between creates a smooth flow that allows any professional trader to study and understand the trading environment with ease and make a sound judgment to place orders.

With dropdown menus for trading pair selection (market), sizing the trading chart in time intervals, type of graph and overlays, traders can easily move back and forth to make trades and study the size of the market at different scales.

5. Creating an Account on Coinbase Pro

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As a trader, before any buying or selling can occur, it’s necessary to create an account with Coinbase Pro. For people who have not had an experience in registering for exchanges (crypto or otherwise), the whole process can be overwhelming.

The registration and trading account creation is lengthy and can feel a bit tenacious, but is very systematic and logical in nature. We will explain in detail how you can get your account registered and active in the shortest time possible in this portion of the guide.

Simply enter the URL into your browser (https://pro.coinbase.com/) and click on the top right box that says Sign Up. Double check to make sure you go to the Coinbase Pro website and not their mainstream crypto exchange.

Registration

Once you click on the Sign Up button, you will be taken to the Coinbase Pro registration page. The crypto exchange will ask for basic information about you in order to proceed with the registration. The data requested by Coinbase Pro here will be your name, email and your preferred password for your new trading account.

The password has to be a bit complex. Always use a combination of alphabets (upper and lowercase), numbers and special characters. This makes it difficult for malicious people to crack your password. Also avoid using phrases or words that would be easy to guess, such as dates of birth, names of your children, spouse, parent etc. Coinbase Pro asks for at least eight characters for your password. We suggest you go for a longer one to make it ever more difficult for hackers.

Coinbase Terms of Service

Before you are able to proceed any further, you will be required to accept the User Agreement and Coinbase Pro Privacy Policy, including how your personal data will be stored and shared with regulatory and legal authorities and any affiliates.

Confirmation Email

You must agree with Coinbase Pro’s User Agreement and their Privacy Policy in order to proceed. When you press the I Acknowledge button, you will be given the option to click Create an Account button. When you submit your basic information, Coinbase Pro will send you a confirmation email containing details on your account creation request. The email will also have a link that you will have to click and open for continuing on to your registration. The email serves also as a security purpose since the link will only be sent to you for registration. No one else, therefore, will have the option to create a Coinbase Pro account in your name.

Once you have agreed to all the information in the email and opened the provided link, you will be diverted to the full registration page where you’ll need to provide detailed personal information.

Two Factor Authentication

As a method of enhanced security, Coinbase Pro also uses Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). You will need to add in your registered mobile number here. The valid mobile number will be linked to your account. Coinbase Pro will send a special code through SMS for any action in your trading account that Coinbase Pro deems to be verified further to ensure only you are the one executing it (such as logging in from an unidentified computer or mobile). You will need to input the exact code to continue.

Coupled with your account password, this code creates a second layer of security, making it difficult for people to access your account illegally. This way, you will have two different factors to authenticate (hence the name, Two-Factor Authentication).

Personal Details & ID Verification

As a legal and regulatory compliant crypto exchange, Coinbase Pro will require detailed information about you.

Information that the crypto exchange will require includes date of birth, address, reason for registering an account, source of income and any employment details. Depending on your country of stay and nationality, further documentation will be requested. For example, US and UK residents will need to upload a scanned copy or a clear image of a government-issued ID.

Meanwhile, traders from other regions will need to provide pictures of two different government-issued IDs. Acceptable forms of IDs are passport, driver’s license or government ID card. Student ID cards, membership cards, etc. that are not government-issued are not acceptable.

Linking Your Bank Accounts

When images are uploaded successfully and verified, the next step will be to select your preferred method of payment and fund of your trading account. Coinbase Pro supports the use of banking channels and you can either use your bank account or Paypal.

If you opt to link your bank account to your Coinbase Pro trading account, Coinbase Pro will make two small charges as the first step for verifying your bank. These will be shown as pending transactions on your Coinbase Pro account. You will need to login to your internet banking and track the transactions, note down the last two digits of the transaction ID and enter these in Coinbase Pro. Once the numbers have been inputted and matched by Coinbase Pro, your account is ready.

If you have supported cryptocurrency in your possession and do not want to link your bank, you can even skip this step to go to your trading account and transfer over your digital assets.

In short, Coinbase Pro is doing due diligence to ensure it complies with all Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to make sure no fraud takes place.

Coinbase Pro Registration for Existing Coinbase Users

There’s some good news for Coinbase traders who want to upgrade their trading fortunes by going professional and setting up an account on Coinbase Pro. For traders who are already using the simple Coinbase account, there is no need to go through the registration and verification process again.

Coinbase account owners must simply apply for the Pro account. Depending on the time of the day and load on the Coinbase Pro team, it will take up to a couple of hours for the approval as they scrutinise your application.

Once approved, traders can simply transfer their required funds from their Coinbase account to their new Coinbase Pro account to start their professional trading.

In both cases, we advise you to take your time reading the terms and conditions, including the privacy policy. Coinbase Pro values the privacy of its customers, yet it is also one of the few exchanges that complies with local regulations and laws. If it is required (which has happened before in the past), it will share limited information of its users with law enforcing agencies. So read the policies carefully and be aware of what you will be getting into when you sign up and give your information.

Coinbase Pro Mobile App

Traders can also sign up and start trading through their mobile by downloading their Android mobile version here and the Apple's iOS version from here. That said, we would recommend avoiding the mobile apps as they are notoriously buggy, and it can be impossible to log in, let alone actually be able to do anything within the app.

The Android app issues are evident as it has a very low rating on Google Play Store (1.7 as of the writing of this guide). We advise users to avoid trading and use of the mobile app or funding purposes to prevent any losses in trading or funds, and only use it to get updates on the market situation.

Coinbase Accounts for Businesses

Institutions interested in opening a trading account on Coinbase Pro can visit the platform and fill out an application here. The process is a bit different than that of an individual trading account. Coinbase Pro asks for quite a bit of verified information in its application process, such as:

• Legal name of organisation
• Country of registration
• Trade names
• Regions in which the business operates
• Nature of business
• W8 tax document for non-US business
• Team verification, including person(s) in control.

After the application has been submitted, the Coinbase Pro team will scrutinise it. If the uation goes smoothly and Coinbase Pro does not find anything out of the ordinary, it will contact the business to inform them about their trading account activation and its details.

Deposit and Withdrawals

Trading is all about generating profits. Once enough profits have been accumulated (or for any reason whatsoever, a trader wants to liquidate or move assets), withdrawals can be made. Let's learn how to fund your Coinbase Pro trading account and then withdraw your earnings.

How to Deposit Funds in Coinbase Pro

Coinbase Pro, as a crypto asset exchange, follows the same rules of trading. Any trading requires funds and Coinbase Pro crypto exchange is no different. Now that you’ve registered and are all set to begin your trades, the next thing you’ll need is funds in your account.

After you log in to your account, you can head to the Assets page and then select the Deposit option.

When you go to the Deposit section, Coinbase Pro will give you a drop-down menu that will allow you to select the type of currency with which you wish to fund your account.

Depositing Cryptocurrency

If this is not the first time you are going to trade cryptocurrency, chances are that you already hold some personally and the cryptocurrency is stored in another wallet. If you wish to use that digital asset and start trading with it, you have the option of transferring your crypto from your other wallet over to Coinbase Pro.

For that, you must select your choice of cryptocurrency from the drop-down menu in the Deposit section of the exchange. Coinbase Pro will give you two ways to deposit the funds.

Depositing Cryptocurrency Through Wallet Key

Cryptocurrencies are stored in wallets. These are the crypto equivalent of bank accounts. Each wallet carries two keys: a public and a private key. Public keys are like your account numbers and if you want to send cryptocurrencies to your Coinbase Pro account, you will be provided one when you select a crypto deposit to fund your account.

You can use the given wallet address to send your cryptocurrency from your previous wallet to your Coinbase Pro account. Be careful to ensure that you copy the exact address that Coinbase Pro shows on the crypto deposit page. If you make a mistake and the transaction is executed, your funds will be lost forever, as cryptocurrency transactions cannot be reversed.

Also double check that you have selected the right cryptocurrency on Coinbase Pro. Your held assets and the selected type should be the same. In case you select the wrong cryptocurrency on the exchange, you will be given a wallet address that will not be on your cryptocurrency network and you will end up sending your assets to another wallet.

Depositing Cryptocurrency Using QR Code

For many traders, even the ones who are pretty familiar with cryptocurrency, the hassle of using long strings of wallet addresses can be too much. Depending on the asset, the wallet addresses can be as long as 36 alphanumeric characters. A single wrong entry can mean that the funds will be sent to someone else, and your funds lost forever.

Coinbase Pro also supports deposit of crypto assets using a QR Code. Each of the crypto assets that you can deposit will have an accompanying unique QR code.

If the wallet you are using to store your cryptocurrencies supports QR code reading, you can scan the given Coinbase Pro QR code for a hassle-free method of transferring your funds over to your Coinbase Pro trading account.

Depositing Fiat

If you intend to fund your Coinbase Pro trading account with fiat (traditional money) and have already linked your bank account with your Coinbase Pro trading account, you can select the supported currency from the drop-down menu in the Deposit option.

Instead of a wallet address, you will be first shown some basic information on the time taken, fee and limits involved in the transfer of your desired currency. This is to ensure that you (or any other trader, for that matter), is aware that fiat takes more time to transfer than cryptos and may incur fees that are not associated with crypto transfers.

If you agree to these conditions, you can press the Continue button. Coinbase Pro will then proceed to the another page, asking for your banking details in case you have not linked your bank account beforehand. Let’s look at an example where you would prefer to deposit Euros.

If you have linked your bank account and verified, you will be directly given Coinbase Pro bank transfer details.

In our case, an example of Euro, Coinbase Pro supports deposits of the Euro through SEPA. Using this method, the system will give you transfer details such as the International Bank Account Number (IBAN), the account title, name and country of bank and reference number. Using this information, you can either log in to your local bank account and transfer your preferred amount of Euro, or head over to your bank branch if you do not have internet banking activated.

Coinbase does support debit cards to buy cryptocurrencies, but unfortunately, Coinbase Pro has no such provision.

How to Withdraw Funds

Similar to deposits, Coinbase Pro allows for withdrawals of fiat and cryptocurrency. As a trader, you will be making profits at some point in time, and will no doubt have the need to withdraw your funds for any number of reasons. Just like deposits, withdrawing funds is a pretty easy task on Coinbase Pro.

For all kinds of withdrawals, make sure that you have the full account or wallet address and other required information so that you do not face any unnecessary delays.

While deposits of all currencies, whether crypto or fiat, have no upper limit, withdrawals do carry a ceiling. Once again, Coinbase Pro has made this fairly simple by having a uniform policy on it.

Traders can withdraw up to $10,000 USD (or equivalent) per day from their Coinbase Pro account. All non-US Dollar assets are calculated according to the market rate and the limit applies to them. For example, if you intend to withdraw your ETH when it is valued at $200 USD, you will be able to only transfer out 50 ETH (10,000/200=50).

The limit has been set as a security measure. In case your account is compromised, the hacker will only be able access (and potentially steal) a limited amount of your funds and assets.

If you find that the withdrawal limit set by Coinbase Pro is too small for you and you are perfectly fine with the option to withdraw larger amounts, you can head over to the Coinbase Pro Limits page and put in a request by selecting the Increase Limit option.

The Coinbase Pro team will scrutinise your application and if it finds everything in order, will allow you to increase your withdrawal limit.

For withdrawing, simply head over to your Coinbase Pro withdraw option.

Withdrawing Cryptocurrency

If you intend to withdraw your crypto asset, select your desired cryptocurrency from the drop-down menu in your main interface page.

Next, you’ll be given an option to enter the destination wallet address. Make sure you have the complete wallet address of the destination. A single character off can result in loss of your cryptocurrency. Take special care to ensure that the wallet to which you’re sending your funds is compatible with the cryptocurrency. If it is not, even using the correct wallet address will mean your cryptocurrency is gone forever.

After you’ve entered the correct address, input the desired amount you wish to withdraw. It can be your complete asset, as long as it does not exceed the daily limit set by Coinbase Pro.

Should you feel the need for transferring out more than Coinbase Pro’s parameters allow, you can always request to increase your daily limit, or you can simply wait 24 hours to transfer again. Transfers of cryptocurrency usually take 10 minutes on average, depending on the type of the asset, but can be longer if the blockchain network is overloaded.

Whitelisting Crypto Addresses

As you may have noticed, Coinbase Pro seems to have a lot of safety and security built in its exchange.

One of these is the whitelisting of crypto addresses. Coinbase Pro has a whitelisting option for cryptocurrency wallet addresses. This feature is a part of the address book, and is a security step that restricts funds being transferred out of the trader‘s account to only the addresses listed.

To activate the whitelisting, head over to your profile and select the address book. You will be presented with your address book, where you can add frequently used wallet addresses. Each wallet address can be given a nickname, making it easier to identify the right address for withdrawal and transfer of funds. Users can add as many internal or external wallet addresses they want in the address book.

To engage the whitelisting safety feature, you will need to press the whitelisting toggle which can be found next to the Add New Address button at the top right side of the address book interface.

Once the toggle is activated, an eight-hour hold time is activated. During this tenure, users can add or remove as many addresses as they want. This gives users enough time to make changes before the whitelisting begins.

After the eight hours are up, you can only send funds out of your account to the listed address. Fortunately, if you ever have the need to send or withdraw your fund to another wallet address, you will be able to add more addresses, but these will go through a two-day hold period.

The hold time is for a reason. If your Coinbase Pro account is compromised, the hacker will not be able to withdraw funds directly to his or her wallet. They will have to add their wallet address and then wait for two days, giving you the crucial time to take back control and protect your assets.

A trader (or for that matter, a hacker) can turn off the whitelisting toggle and be able to send funds to any wallet or account. However, for the purpose of security, the same two-day period hold will apply before the whitelisting is over.

Withdrawing Fiat

If you need to withdraw your fiat funds, you should select the relevant fiat from the same drop-down menu that you will have used for crypto assets.

In case you have not linked your Coinbase Pro account with your bank at the time of registration, you will be required to do so now. The linking process is the same, with Coinbase Pro sending two small transactions. You will be required to enter the last couple of identification digits of the transaction in Coinbase Pro’s bank linkin process to show proof that the bank you have mentioned is indeed correct and you are the owner.

After you have linked your bank account successfully, you’ll be able to opt for the correct fiat and withdraw your funds to your bank account.

If you want to cash out your cryptocurrency, Coinbase Pro also gives you the option to use the fiat pairs and sell your cryptocurrency within Coinbase Pro and then send it to your bank account.

Coinbase Pro also allows traders to view their withdrawal history. In the portfolios tab on the top right corner on the trading view, a trader can see the complete history of all withdrawals ever made.

Again, the withdrawals are limited to a standard of $10,000 per day. As already explained, should this amount be too small for your liking, you can always put in a request to increase your daily limit.

Deposits and Withdrawal Fees

Coinbase Pro has a very simple method when it comes to fee and charges regarding deposits and withdrawals. Unlike some other exchanges that have high and variable fees, Coinbase Pro has a fixed-fee structure. For cryptocurrencies and US Dollar deposited or withdrawn through ACH, there are no charges by Coinbase Pro. Pound Sterling deposited through SWIFT is also free of cost. However, all other deposits and withdrawals carry charges. For details of the deposit and withdrawal fees charged by Coinbase Pro, please refer to the following table.

Coinbase Pro does not have any lower or upper limit for deposits. However, as a trader and user of Coinbase Pro, you should consult your bank as it might have a cap on the amount of money you can send.

Do note, however, that the methods that carry no fee are not inclusive of any charges made by the banks in the shape of transaction or landing fee. Consult your bank policies and its Schedule of Bank Charges documentation to understand any charge or fee might be associated with the transactions.

The same applies to cryptocurrencies. Deposits are free, but each cryptocurrency transaction that you do to send funds to Coinbase Pro will carry a miner’s fee that you have to pay to the network miner so he or she can process it.

6. How To Trade on Coinbase Pro

Now that we’ve explained the basics of sending funds in and out of Coinbase Pro, let’s get to the real action: how to trade and make profits.

Like all other cryptocurrency exchanges, the basics of trading are the same and parallel legacy forex and stock exchanges.

Once in the trading dashboard,, you have the trading graph, while on its left is the order book showcasing all buy and sell orders. On the far left of the dashboard is where you can place your orders.

Depending on the type of cryptocurrency or fiat you have used to fund your Coinbase Pro account, you can now use it to trade. On the top left of the trading page, you will see a drop-down menu with all the 65 trading pairs Coinbase Pro offers.

If you have funded your account with fiat, you will only be able to trade using the relevant crypto/fiat pair. In case you have deposited crypto assets, you can select their corresponding trading pair. For example, if you have funds in GBP, you’ll be able to trade a number of cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and even Bitcoin Cash. However, you will not be able to trade in for Algorand, since it does not have a GBP trading pair.

So, you must select a trading pair that is supported by your funds. When you select it, the page will start displaying trading information on it. The charts, order books, and everything you see will be of that trading pair.

Directly below the trading pair selection menu, you will find your order form. It has two main options, Buy or Sell. Let’s go through, step-by-step, how to place a buy order on Coinbase Pro.

How to Buy

When selecting the buy option, you’ll be offered three different options for placing your order: market, limit and stop limit. These are the most basic and are found all over the world, be it forex, stocks or crypto exchanges. To understand how each of these work, let’s dive into a bit of detail.

Market Order

As the name suggests, a market order is when you buy assets at the current market price. This order should only be used when you want to buy your cryptocurrency instantly. Simply place your desired amount of purchase and press Place My Order. The Coinbase Pro matching engine will use the current market price and fulfill your order.

Limit Order

What if you wish to procure your cryptocurrency at a predetermined rate? For example, you have a firm belief that the value of a specific asset will bottom out at your predicted rate. You have an opportunity to make a profit by buying the asset as close to the bottom price as you can.

The limit order helps you by letting you place your order against your desired price. In the input values for the order, apart from the quantity you seek, you will also find the field of entering your limit price. You will need to enter the desired price to place the order.

Once the order is placed, your order will go in the order book and Coinbase Pro will match it against the value. If there is a trader who is willing to sell at the desired value you set, your orders will be matched and the trade will be executed. The trade will be executed immediately if there is already a seller willing to part with the assets at that rate. If not, the order will remain in the order book unless matched or you cancel it.

Remember that to make a profitable trade, you’ll want to enter a value that is lower than the current market value. The trade will be executed if there is a match, regardless of the market rate. This way, you can buy low and sell when the value rises.

Stop Limit

Stop limit orders are a variation of limit orders. They essentially work the same way as limit, but instead of the limit price determining the execution event of the order, there is another step involved.

Stop Limit orders are mostly used to protect your holdings, or to make a trade when the certain conditions are met. When placing this order, you will see another option. This is the market value. Only when the desired market value is reached will your order of a desired quantity and rate be placed in the order book to be matched.

Difference Between Limit Order and Stop Limit Order

When it comes to limit order and stop limit order, the differences are only minor. Yet this opens up a huge window of opportunity for traders. Stop limit order acts just as same as a limit order, but with one minor difference. The stop limit that traders sets acts as the trigger value. When the market rate achieves a value that matches with the stop limit, the order is placed in the trading book.

When the trade order starts, it acts like a normal limit order and only executes the trade when it is matched against the limit value and the amount of assets in the book with a seller. The stop limit order this way provides traders with a greater degree of control over when their desired trade will execute.

Mostly, traders use this form of order when they cannot be available in front of their screen and actively check out the market on the Coinbase Pro platform. Since cryptocurrency exchanges operate 24 hours a day, even on holidays, it’s understood that a trader will need to be away, sleep and eat. A trader can use this stop limit order when going away, like going to sleep, for example, and the order will automatically be executed even in his or her absence.

How to Sell

In a trade, you’re sometimes a seller, sometimes a buyer. Should you wish to sell your assets, you can do so by using the sell option on the right side, where orders in the Coinbase Pro book are placed. The same Market, Limit and its variation of Stop Limit actions apply for your sell trades.

To make it visually easier for traders to know if they are buying or selling, the orders have different colours. This way, traders can immediately identify their position. Buying buttons have a blue colour theme, while selling buttons are red.

Market Order

Just like the market order of simple buying, a trader can select the specific amount of asset that is desired to be sold and press the Place My Order button. The execution of the order will happen immediately against the price at that time in the market.

Limit Order

Limit order for selling is used to trade a specified amount of assets whenever there is another trader willing to acquire the asset against the set desired price. Just like the limit order for buying, this is independent of the price of the asset in the market.

Simply input values in their field, such as the limit price (your desired asset value) and the amount of assets you wish to sell.

Using the limit order carefully can generate you profits. If you have been able to acquire an asset at a lower price with expectations of it rising and want to have a profit of, let’s say 5%, you can set a limit order for selling with the limit value calculated for a 5% more than your buying value. If another trader matches your sell order, you can generate your desired profit.

Stop Limit Order

When traders wish to sell their cryptos at their preferred value only when a certain value is achieved in the Coinbase Pro market, the stop limit order can come in handy. Just input the value of the asset at which you would like the order to trigger—that is, the desired value of the asset in the market—, your required price of your asset in the limit field and select the quantity of the asset you wish to sell.

Advantage of Stop Limit Order

Stop limit order gives traders an edge by mitigating their losses. A trader can set the stop limit to ensure that his order is executed only after a certain degree of asset value has fallen. Using this, the trader can be away from his computer and not worry that a fall in asset price would result in a tremendous loss.

Using the Trading Graph to Make Decisions

Traders can view the trading graph on the right of the dashboard to make decisions about their trades. The basic overview gives a candlestick graph, made popular by Japanese rice trading. Each bar represents a timeline that can be defined from the options right above the graph. This can range from one-minute intervals to a full day.

A candlestick graph shows how the asset has performed in each time interval. Red colour means that when the time period of that stick started, the value was greater for the asset compared to when it closed. A green colour means that at the closing time of the stick, the price was greater than the opening. The lines at the top and bottom of the candle sticks, called heads and tails, show what the maximum and minimum price had risen or fallen to respectively.

7. Margin Trading

Coinbase Pro also allows professional traders to use margin and gain extra profits. Margin trading is very similar to normal trading, but users are able to borrow money or assets to increase their profitability.

Traders of Coinbase Pro can gain up to 3x leverage in margin trading. This means that for every $1 USD you can trade, you will be able to borrow $2 USD more. Each trader will have a maximum limit defined, so even if your leverage is high, you’ll be limited on how much you can borrow.

For margin trading, US Dollar, the stable coin USDC, and BTC are considered as 1:1 collateral. There are other assets, such as ETH and LTC, that are not considered as collateral against margin trading and as such, do not count.

A warning though, margin trading is only recommended if you have done your homework. While offering the chance to make larger profits than normal trading, it also entails that you can lose all of your money if the borrower calls in when there is a sudden drop in price and your trade assets are liquidated to cover your losses.

Margin trading on Coinbase Pro has been active since February 2020 and is currently limited to 23 states for professional individual traders.

8. Trading Fees

As an intermediary and a middle man, Coinbase Pro charges traders for every partial or full buy and sell order that is executed. Like all exchanges, Coinbase Pro also uses a maker and taker fee model. Unlike its deposit and withdrawal model where the fee is fixed, the trading fee is based on a percentage of the order. Coinbase Pro has different percentages, depending on the trader’s Pricing Tier.

The tier of a trader is calculated on a daily basis, based on the last 30 days of activity. The tier system is designed to offer a lower trading fee for higher-volume traders who contribute to the liquidity of the market. Each trade you make is calculated in terms of US Dollars so that there is no variation in determining the tier level. To know more about your tier level, you can log in to your Coinbase Pro account and click this link.

A maker is any trader who places an order and the order is filled immediately. That is, someone else takes the order you make. If the order is not matched instantly, it is placed in the order book, letting anyone match the order. In this scenario, you become the taker and are charged a fee accordingly.

For scenarios where your order is partially filled immediately and the rest is done when another trader matches, you will be charged a maker fee for the portion that was immediately matched, while the rest will be charged a taker fee.

9. Service Locations

Coinbase prides on compliance with financial regulators in the United States and around the world. Currently, the crypto exchange has obtained a license to operate in the following locations:

• a. United States

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kendutcky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, VIrginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming.

Currently, Hawaii is not supported. All other locations other than the above are supported if there is no licensing or regulatory compliance required.

• b. Europe

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan.

• c. Other Regions

Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan,, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan.

Depending upon the country and region, some trading pairs may not be available. To know more about which pairs you can trade, check out the Coinbase Pro article on it here.

10. Coinbase Pro API

Coinbase Pro allows traders to use Application Programming Interface (API) to access their wallets and accounts remotely to view and perform trades. A trader can simply go to the settings page and create and activate API keys.

To create your API key, select the menu on your Coinbase Pro dashboard on the top right.

Select the API option. Under the Profile Information, you must select API Settings tab to get to the New API Key option.

You will be led to a Profile Information page. The third tab is for API settings. You can create an API key here.

You can have multiple APIs at the same time, so you will need to give your API a nickname in order to identify it in the future. You must also give permissions to the API. You have three options: View (you can only view your account through the API), Transfer (you can send and receive crypto funds), and Trade (you can execute trade orders through the API). You then must create a password.

When you have created your password, you can input the IP from where your API will connect to Coinbase Pro. Note that for this, you must have a fixed IP. Your API will not connect if you connect from a different IP

After you have made your password, Coinbase Pro will ask you for a six-digit password that will be sent to your registered mobile number under their 2FA system.

Your API will be created and you will be presented with API secret code. Save the code in a secure location because when you will press Done, the secret code will not be shown again. If you lose your secret code, you cannot recover it — so keep it safe.

11. Coinbase Pro Mobile App

In the modern world of today, mobility is not a demand or want, but rather a need. To facilitate traders who are on the move or simply do not want to sit in front of a big screen, Coinbase Pro has a mobile app.

Available for both Android and iOS users, the Coinbase Pro app mirrors the same functionality as of the main platform. Signing in is the same as for the main platform, with all options of trading, deposits and withdrawals.

When launched back in 2017, it was one of the most downloaded apps in the Apple Store. Coinbase is currently ranked as the fifth most downloaded United States-based financial app.

Unfortunately, recent updates have faced a lot of criticism. If using the mobile app to sign up and register, users face extreme delays in the KYC and AML checks, with many complaining of the verification process being excruciatingly long.

Coinbase Pro seems to have now totally ignored its mobile app since the author attempted to create an account and constantly received an error message. Some users who were contacted by the author reported that they even faced difficulty logging in through the mobile app. A few even said they deleted the app altogether, frustrated with its inability to perform any task.

Currently, the mobile app is rated a mere 1.7 out of 5 with 1,266 reviews. It seems that Coinbase has literally decided to abandon the app.

12. Coinbase Pro Security

Coinbase Pro has the same levels of security infrastructure as its other trading platforms, the Coinbase and Coinbase Prime. When it comes to reliability of up time, it’s one the most active platforms in the market. A testament to its digital security, the platform and the trading firm have faced many hacking attempts, all of them having been successfully thwarted.

The latest example was in the middle of 2019, when Coinbase was a target of a complex and sophisticated social engineering and phishing attack. The attackers exploited two vulnerabilities in Firefox browsers, in an attempt to gain access to traders’ accounts, in conjunction with making fake emails from the compromised accounts to siphon off money. Coinbase security team was able to identify the intrusion in a timely manner, and stop it before even a single cryptocurrency was stolen.

Bolstering its day-to-day security, Coinbase uses the platform itself to buy cryptocurrencies. Rather than depending on an outside exchange or supplier, the internal dependency reduces the chances of anyone hacking and changing the wallet addresses to siphon off the assets.

Coinbase launched its operations as a multi-asset storage wallet. To this day, it continues to offer the internally hosted wallets, allowing users to save their assets in a secure manner. Coinbase also encourages investors to save their precious assets in cold wallets.

Cold wallets are like regular wallets, but are not connected to the internet or the blockchain network. This adds another layer of security, since these wallets are inaccessible. Even if a hacker were able to get his or hands on the wallet private keys, transfers would not be possible.

Going a step even further, Coinbase Pro is only one of a handful of exchanges that offers insurance against theft. A major part of all assets is kept safe in cold storage, with just the right amount needed for daily operations in hot wallets. The amount in the hot wallets is insured by Lloyd’s of London. For funds in US Dollars, the Coinbase Pro covers these with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), for an amount of $250,000 per trader.

The insurance coverage does not mean that traders can relax. It’s important to understand that traders themselves are primarily responsible for securing their usernames and passwords. Any failure on the trader’s part and resultant asset loss is not the responsibility of Coinbase Pro and it will not entertain any claims of this nature.

13. How to Get Your Asset Listed on Coinbase Pro

Coinbase Pro is a professional-level crypto asset trading platform and complies with the same stringent requirements for all Coinbase platforms. Any blockchain and crypto developer with intentions of getting their token must adhere to the rules.

Collectively called the Coinbase Digital Asset Framework, there are six main compliances for a successful listing:

a. Coinbase Mission & Values

There are four pillars of Coinbase Mission & Values and any token listing should be aligned with it. The platform behind the token should bring in new or improved technology that caters to a new market, solves a challenge or meets ignored market demand. The token and its platform also should bring economic freedom, making it easy for people-at-large to take part in it with the right to hold and use their tokens as they please.

The ecosystem should have the same accessibility for all users, with access to the internet or a smartphone. Lastly, and perhaps the most important in philosophy, the network should be public and completely decentralised with a trustless environment.

b. Technology

The technology behind the platform should be open-source and viewable by anyone with the skillset to understand the programming. The team should also be able to demonstrate that they are open to getting feedback in the shape of a vulnerability identification and take immediate and appropriate steps to take care of it. This can be through either a bounty program or a verified third-party security audit. The team should also have a prototype or a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that is working in a testnet or on the mainnet.

The information on the top management should be available, with the ability to demonstrate that the team has the vision and clarity to progress the platform. Coinbase will follow Know Your Client standards on all publicly available information. The engineering team also has to provide their track record information. The team is further required to show that they’re in touch with their community and have cash/budget management skills. The project teams should also have a wide range of specialists, so that dependency is not in the hands of a few people.

When it comes to the governing of the platform and the ecosystem, there should be a structured process for updates in the code and a system, such as transparent voting, to avoid any conflict. There should also be a system put in place to ensure future funding. The system should be beyond the scope of an ICO or traditional funding. A clear and detailed whitepaper should also be made public for everyone.

The project should also have clear-cut strategies for overcoming potential barriers, with a roadmap, defined future network operating costs, real-world or future practical application. The blockchain behind the system should be independent, even if a fork of an existing one.

c. Legal & Compliance

The token or asset should comply with AML, KYC and other legal compliances in their and Coinbase’s jurisdiction of operations. The tokens should also comply with the Howey Test to ensure they are not classified as securities within the United States. Management should ensure that neither the nature of the project or its ecosystem should fall under the category of businesses not allowed to be listed by Coinbase Pro’s policies.

d. Market Supply

The token or the asset should have a high turnover in the market, with a significant market capitalisation. The supply of new tokens should be through a consensus system. If the supply is limited, a large portion should already be in circulation.

Data such as current listing on exchanges, along with trading pairs (both crypto to crypto and crypto to fiat), and volume distribution in secondary markets, should be available.

e. Market Demand

A proper study of consumer or customer demand is done. The number of repositories and contributors, along with dedicated forums of developers, users and active communities should exist with regular interaction with the developers. The stakeholders should be from within and outside of the project itself. The project should have ventures and corporate partnerships from well respected firms.

There should also be an increased market capitalisation, nodes and transaction numbers to show that the network is growing.

f. Cryptoeconomics

The tokens should be well defined as service, work, or hybrid. Coinbase does not list asset-backed tokens as they come under the definition of a security. The token should also be able to show that it has a utility factor when being procured, held, or spent by users. Miners and validators of the network should be well compensated, along with a system that deters “bad” behavior.

Call it an ICO, TGE, or otherwise, the token sale should be transparent, ethical and should be fair in distribution with a cap so that a small number of big players are not able to procure a large supply. The same applies to the team. They should hold only a very small minority stake in the floated or existing tokens. The security protocols should be stringent enough to deter any hacks and scams.

Only when these conditions are met, will Coinbase consider the possibility of a token listing. If an aspiring platform meets these conditions, the team can apply for a listing using Coinbase Listing Application Form

14. Customer Service

Although Coinbase and Coinbase Pro have good reputations in terms of security and legal compliance, they have a lot to make up for in terms of customer service. As already shown in the mobile app section, the crypto exchange has very low user rating, and -- despite hundreds of traders complaining -- little to nothing has been done to remove the issues and bugs in the app.

A report published by the news platform Quartz back in 2018 revealed that on a month-by-month basis, the average customer complaints for the crypto exchange jumped more than 100% in January alone to 889. The report was based on data available from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Half of all the complaints were put in the category of “money was not available when promised”.

Coinbase Pro needs to review the low-to-negative feedback the company is receiving from its users, and make necessary updates to the mobile app so it’s bug free. The modern world is all about mobility. If the exchange reads between the lines, it will realise that such a large number of complaints also shows keen interest by traders to use the mobile app. A proper, bug-free mobile application will give its users more freedom to trade and make profits. This will also result in more revenue generation directly, with indirect and added benefit of reputation improvement.

Higher numbers of customer complaints, especially where they say that money was not available when promised, will create a negative impact on the company’s reputation. Many users have said that the rebranding of GDAX to Coinbase Pro is when the customer service issues started.

Issues range from account suspension without reasoning to two out of five, based on 2,348 reviews.

If you face any issues while trading on Coinbase Pro, you can visit their help page. You will find a range of topics, from simple lectures on how to get started in crypto trading to how to avoid scams and frauds. If you don’t find an article or FAQs covering your issue, you can always scroll down the pae and press the Contact Us button to put in a request.

Coinbase Pro is a professional trading platform that sees larger volumes in orders. With the low quality of customer service, people will hesitate to move their investments and funds on the exchange and seek alternative crypto exchange platforms.

15. Coinbase Pro Legal & Regulatory Compliance

Coinbase is one of the few crypto exchanges that has tried to be as legally and regulatory compliant as possible. It even holds a New York Virtual Currency License, commonly known as BitLicense. Obtaining this license is not an easy task. The costs involved in the processing of the license can be too much for many firms. Back when it was announced in 2015, nearly a dozen crypto exchange firms decided it was more feasible to shift their operations to another locality, rather than paying the exorbitant fee.

Coinbase Pro is a part of Coinbase Inc, with its head office located in San Francisco, USA.

Postal Address:

Coinbase Inc,
100 Pine Street,
Suite 1250
San Francisco,
California
94111

Contact Number: +1 888-908-7930

You can find directions to their head office by clicking here.

Coinbase’s compliance within the United States includes Money Services Business registration with FinCEN, the Patriot Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. The crypto exchange covers more than 30 countries, including the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Initially, it did not acquire any licenses in other countries in which it operated, but as the cryptocurrency sphere expanded and other countries started to implement different legal and regulatory frameworks, Coinbase also started to acquire those. In the third quarter of last year, Coinbase was one of the first to gain an e-license to operate in the European Union. It has also established an office in Ireland, one of the handful of EU countries that have become a hotbed for global blockchain and crypto economy.

The crypto exchange has one of the toughest KYC and AML systems for its token listing and traders. The company also keeps a complete and comprehensive record of all transactions done by traders.

The exchange supports 27 different kinds of crypto tokens and assets in 65 trading pairs:

Bitcoin: BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, BTC/GBP, BTC/USDC

Ethereum: ETH/USD, ETH/USDC, ETH/EUR, ETH/BTC, ETH/GBP, ETH/DAI

0x: ZRX/USD, ZRX/EUR, ZRX/BTC

Algorand: ALGO/USD

Augur: REP/USD, REP/BTC

Basic Attention Token: BAT/USDC, BAT/ETH

Bitcoin Cash: BCH/USD, BCH/EUR, BCH/BTC, BCH/GBP

ChainLink: LINK/USD, LINK/ETH

Civic: CVC/USDC

Cosmos: ATOM/USD, ATOM/BTC

Dai: DAI/USDC, DAI/USD

Dash: DASH/USD, DASH/BTC

Decentraland: MANA/USDC

district0x: DNT/USDC

EOS: EOS/USD, EOS/BTC, EOS/EUR

Ethereum Classic: ETC/USD, ETC/EUR. ETC/BTC. ETC/GBP

Golem: GNT/USD

Kyber Network: KNC/USD, KNC/BTC

Litecoin: LTC/USD, LTC/EUR, LTC/BTC, LTC/GBP

Loom Network: LOOM/USDC

Maker: MKR/USD, MKR/BTC

OMG Network: OMG/USD, OMG/EUR, OMG/BTC, OMG/GBP

Orchid Protocol: OXT/USD

Steller: XLM/USD, XLM/EUR, XLM/BTC

Tezos: XTZ/USD, XTZ/BTC

Ripple: XRP/USD, XRP/BTC, XRP/EUR

Zcash: ZEC/USDC, ZEC/BTC

16. Legal and Other Controversies

Despite being stringent in its legal and regulatory compliance, both Coinbase and Coinbase Pro have faced different legal issues since their inception.

As mentioned, the exchange is a signatory of the Bank Secrecy Act. The act requires

“Coinbase to verify customer identities, maintain records of currency transactions for up to 5 years, and report certain transactions”

Along with this, compliance with the Patriot Act is also frowned upon by the public as intruding in the privacy of people. The Patriot Act gives law enforcing agencies of the United States greater, yet draconian powers such as the ability to intercept and tap into its own citizens’ phone lines to listen in on conversations.

The US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin stated in a recent interview

“If you have a wallet to own Bitcoins, that company has the same obligation as a bank to know [you as a customer, and] we can track those activities”

The exchange, where it is all in favour of legal compliance, has also taken actions to protect the privacy of its traders. The US Internal Revenue Service ordered Coinbase to report traders who had completed more than $20,000 transactions a year.

According to the court orders, the IRS claimed,

“Only 800 to 900 taxpayers reported gains related to Bitcoin in each of the relevant years and that more than 14,000 Coinbase users have either bought, sold, sent, or received at least $20,000 worth of Bitcoin in a given year suggests that many Coinbase users may not be reporting their Bitcoin gains.”

Coinbase fought over what it saw was overreach of government agencies. It won a partial victory and was able to reduce the amount and type of data that was eventually handed over to the IRS. Only 14,000 traders’ records were handed over. Even with this, many traders and privacy advocates lashed out, saying that this was still unsatisfactory. The data handed over still contained personal information such as taxpayer ID, names, addresses, transaction records and account statements.

This kind of personal information being handed over to a government agency was seen by many as abuse of power and violation of basic human privacy. Coinbase has also been accused of insider trading. When Bitcoin Cash was to be listed on the exchange, which was considered insider information unknown to many, there was a sudden spike in its value. Traders and experts have cried foul, claiming that without explicit knowledge of the listing, the flurry of buying activity and resultant immense rise in price is much too correlated to be called a coincidence.

In 2017, the last great crypto rush, nearly all tokens and coins were seeing their biggest gains, with the top ones hitting their all time highs. During the middle of that year, Ethereum saw a jaw-dropping crash in its price from $319 USD to just $0.10 USD on Coinbase for a few seconds. The reason behind this was a single massive sell order to the magnitude of several million dollars. The actual drop in price, as the exchange matched it against several buying orders, saw ETH dip to $224 USD. But the nearly one-third drop in price created a cascading sell frenzy and forced margin buy orders to be liquidated, leading to the second-largest coin being worthless for a few moments.

This flash crash became one of the most discussed issues in the crypto world. According to a statement by Coinbase Pro, the trading engine on the platform performed as per its programming parameters and was not responsible for the drop in price due to the sudden liquidation. The exchange said that during the flash crash, almost 800 stop loss orders were executed. Coinbase Pro later announced that traders who were inadvertently affected by the crash would be compensated.

A little over half a year later, Coinbase announced that, due to an error on the part credit and debit card payment systems, some traders were overcharged when transferring funds from their cards to their trading accounts. The reasoning behind it was said by the exchange to be a change in the Merchant Category Code (MCC) for cryptocurrencies. The change in the code led to the card issuers to process the payments as cash advances, leading to banks adding the requisite fees.

The affectees were traders who had used their cards on the exchange during January 22 to February 11, 2018. Visa -- one of the largest payment processors -- initially blamed Coinbase, saying that it had not made any changes in its systems that would have led to the extra charge being incurred. However, subsequent joint statements by Visa and Coinbase have said that exchange had no role to play in the error.

17. Conclusion

Coinbase Pro is a professional-level crypto exchange that caters to large volume individual traders. A reliable platform with top-of-the-line security systems, it has demonstrated time and again that users and their assets are a top priority for it. Its long history and market presence, coupled with its legal compliance in every location of its operations, is a testament to the company’s professionalism.

Compared to its main exchange, Coinbase, Coinbase Pro offers a very small range of assets (27 crypto tokens and coins) and trading pairs (64 in total). However, each asset and its relevant trading pair has been carefully selected by the Coinbase Pro team to give its target market traders the most well-performing assets.

Market-based orders and margin trading allows its users to use their skills and understanding of the market to capitalize on the fluctuations in the market to gain profits.

Given the good reputation and its commitment, it’s expected Coinbase Pro will flourish ever more. On the other hand, there are a few specific issues that the exchange is constantly facing and apparently the team is ignoring it. The buggy mobile app means that traders still need to rely on their laptop or computers to view their accounts and make trades. This robs them of precious time in a market where even a second’s delay can lead to losses.

Secondly, Coinbase Pro needs to ramp up the quality of its customer service. Ignoring the plight of users where their assets are stuck in the middle of transaction or are lost can lead to a very heavy dent in the company’s reputation. If Coinbase Pro is not going to take any swift action soon, it might witness a mass exodus of traders.

Keeping all of the above in mind, if you are a trader who wants to get into the business of buying and selling crypto assets, you need to be aware that where, at one point, Coinbase Pro offers a lot of benefits and ease, it also has some serious shortcomings that can cost you money.

As in all decisions regarding cryptocurrencies, we advise you to do your own homework. Invest only an amount that you are willing to part with in case you suffer losses.